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Thursday, September 5, 2013

ALS - JBoss cycling in 2nd annual Ries van der Velden Classic

Last year I participated in the first annual Ries van der Velden Classic to ride against ALS. I will give a bit of background and tie it back into JBoss by the end, so bear with me.

I have a friend who was a pretty avid cyclist, having done the Alpe d'HuZes (climbing this famous Tour de France mountain 6 times in a single day) just 2 years ago. He was in great condition, but in the Fall of that year he was diagnosed with ALS. He has been lucky enough to have an amazing group of friends that have helped to set up a foundation and to organize the Ries van der Velden Classic to raise funds to fight ALS.

Sporting the Red Hat JBoss cycling gear, I (JBoss Technology Evangelist) again wanted to ride for this good cause. The route is a loop between Zandvoort and Bloemendaal that we were to ride as much as possible, with each loop being sponsored with 1, 5, or 10 euros.

I rode the event last Sunday, 1 Sep 2012, together with hundreds of registered participants and they raised over 12,300- euros (estimated). I completed 6 loops for a total of ~130 km in just under 5 1/2 hours on the bike. My personal performance data was monitored and can be found at the bottom of this article. A day well spent and done with Red Hat cycling gear that features the JBoss logo. Ries could appreciate this marketing as he is a fellow IT engineer.

We wish Ries all the best and look forward to sporting the Red Hat JBoss cycling kit in the third annual event!